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THE RIP-ROARING SEQUEL TO THE GREATEST ADVENTURE EVER TOLD
Almost forty years following the events of Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island, Jim Hawkins and Long John Silver have seemingly put their maritime adventures to rest. Jim has settled on the English coast with his son Jim, and Silver has returned to rural England with his daughter Natty. While their escapades may have ended, for Jim and Natty the adventure is only just beginning.
One night, Natty approaches young Jim with a return to Treasure Island and find the remaining treasure that their fathers left behind. As they set sail in their fathers' footsteps, Jim and Natty cannot imagine what awaits them. Murderous pirates, long-held grudges, noxious greed, and wily deception lurk wickedly in the high seas, and disembarking onto Treasure Island only proves more perilous. Their search for buried treasure leaves every last wit tested and ounce of courage spent. And the adventure doesn't end there, since they still have to make their way home...
Almost forty years following the events of Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island, Jim Hawkins and Long John Silver have seemingly put their maritime adventures to rest. Jim has settled on the English coast with his son Jim, and Silver has returned to rural England with his daughter Natty. While their escapades may have ended, for Jim and Natty the adventure is only just beginning.
One night, Natty approaches young Jim with a return to Treasure Island and find the remaining treasure that their fathers left behind. As they set sail in their fathers' footsteps, Jim and Natty cannot imagine what awaits them. Murderous pirates, long-held grudges, noxious greed, and wily deception lurk wickedly in the high seas, and disembarking onto Treasure Island only proves more perilous. Their search for buried treasure leaves every last wit tested and ounce of courage spent. And the adventure doesn't end there, since they still have to make their way home...
416 pages, Paperback
First published March 15, 2012
82 people are currently reading
2166 people want to read
About the author
Andrew Motion
113 books64 followersSir Andrew Motion, FRSL is an English poet, novelist and biographer, who presided as Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom from 1999 to 2009.
Motion was appointed Poet Laureate on 1 May 1999, following the death of Ted Hughes, the previous incumbent. The Nobel Prize-winning Northern Irish poet and translator Seamus Heaney had ruled himself out for the post. Breaking with the tradition of the laureate retaining the post for life, Motion stipulated that he would stay for only ten years. The yearly stipend of £200 was increased to £5,000 and he received the customary butt of sack.
He wanted to write "poems about things in the news, and commissions from people or organisations involved with ordinary life," rather than be seen a 'courtier'. So, he wrote "for the TUC about liberty, about homelessness for the Salvation Army, about bullying for ChildLine, about the foot and mouth outbreak for the Today programme, about the Paddington rail disaster, the 11 September attacks and Harry Patch for the BBC, and more recently about shell shock for the charity Combat Stress, and climate change for the song cycle I've finished for Cambridge University with Peter Maxwell Davies." In 2003, Motion wrote Regime change, a poem in protest at Invasion of Iraq from the point of view of Death walking the streets during the conflict, and in 2005, Spring Wedding in honour of the wedding of the Prince of Wales to Camilla Parker Bowles. Commissioned to write in the honour of 109 year old Harry Patch, the last surviving 'Tommy' to have fought in World War I, Motion composed a five part poem, read and received by Patch at the Bishop's Palace in Wells in 2008. As laureate, he also founded the Poetry Archive an on-line library of historic and contemporary recordings of poets reciting their own work.
Motion remarked that he found some of the duties attendant to the post of poet laureate difficult and onerous and that the appointment had been "very, very damaging to [his] work". The appointment of Motion met with criticism from some quarters. As he prepared to stand down from the job, Motion published an article in The Guardian which concluded, "To have had 10 years working as laureate has been remarkable. Sometimes it's been remarkably difficult, the laureate has to take a lot of flak, one way or another. More often it has been remarkably fulfilling. I'm glad I did it, and I'm glad I'm giving it up – especially since I mean to continue working for poetry." Motion spent his last day as Poet Laureate holding a creative writing class at his alma mater, Radley College, before giving a poetry reading and thanking Peter Way, the man who taught him English at Radley, for making him who he was. Carol Ann Duffy succeeded him as Poet Laureate on 1 May 2009.
Andrew Motion nació en 1952. Estudió en el University College de Oxford y empezó su carrera enseñando inglés en la Universidad de Hull. También ha sido director de Poetry Review, director editorial de Chatto & Windus, y Poeta Laureado; asimismo, fue cofundador del Poetry Archive, y en 2009 se le concedió el título de Sir por su obra literaria. En la actualidad es profesor de escritura creativa en el Royal Holloway, de la Universidad de Londres. Es miembro de la Royal Society of Literature y vive en Londres. Con un elenco de nobles marineros y crueles piratas, y llena de historias de amor y de valentía, Regreso a la isla del tesoro es una trepidante continuación de La isla del tesoro, escrita con extraordinaria autenticidad y fuerza imaginativa por uno de los grandes escritores ingleses actuales.
Motion was appointed Poet Laureate on 1 May 1999, following the death of Ted Hughes, the previous incumbent. The Nobel Prize-winning Northern Irish poet and translator Seamus Heaney had ruled himself out for the post. Breaking with the tradition of the laureate retaining the post for life, Motion stipulated that he would stay for only ten years. The yearly stipend of £200 was increased to £5,000 and he received the customary butt of sack.
He wanted to write "poems about things in the news, and commissions from people or organisations involved with ordinary life," rather than be seen a 'courtier'. So, he wrote "for the TUC about liberty, about homelessness for the Salvation Army, about bullying for ChildLine, about the foot and mouth outbreak for the Today programme, about the Paddington rail disaster, the 11 September attacks and Harry Patch for the BBC, and more recently about shell shock for the charity Combat Stress, and climate change for the song cycle I've finished for Cambridge University with Peter Maxwell Davies." In 2003, Motion wrote Regime change, a poem in protest at Invasion of Iraq from the point of view of Death walking the streets during the conflict, and in 2005, Spring Wedding in honour of the wedding of the Prince of Wales to Camilla Parker Bowles. Commissioned to write in the honour of 109 year old Harry Patch, the last surviving 'Tommy' to have fought in World War I, Motion composed a five part poem, read and received by Patch at the Bishop's Palace in Wells in 2008. As laureate, he also founded the Poetry Archive an on-line library of historic and contemporary recordings of poets reciting their own work.
Motion remarked that he found some of the duties attendant to the post of poet laureate difficult and onerous and that the appointment had been "very, very damaging to [his] work". The appointment of Motion met with criticism from some quarters. As he prepared to stand down from the job, Motion published an article in The Guardian which concluded, "To have had 10 years working as laureate has been remarkable. Sometimes it's been remarkably difficult, the laureate has to take a lot of flak, one way or another. More often it has been remarkably fulfilling. I'm glad I did it, and I'm glad I'm giving it up – especially since I mean to continue working for poetry." Motion spent his last day as Poet Laureate holding a creative writing class at his alma mater, Radley College, before giving a poetry reading and thanking Peter Way, the man who taught him English at Radley, for making him who he was. Carol Ann Duffy succeeded him as Poet Laureate on 1 May 2009.
Andrew Motion nació en 1952. Estudió en el University College de Oxford y empezó su carrera enseñando inglés en la Universidad de Hull. También ha sido director de Poetry Review, director editorial de Chatto & Windus, y Poeta Laureado; asimismo, fue cofundador del Poetry Archive, y en 2009 se le concedió el título de Sir por su obra literaria. En la actualidad es profesor de escritura creativa en el Royal Holloway, de la Universidad de Londres. Es miembro de la Royal Society of Literature y vive en Londres. Con un elenco de nobles marineros y crueles piratas, y llena de historias de amor y de valentía, Regreso a la isla del tesoro es una trepidante continuación de La isla del tesoro, escrita con extraordinaria autenticidad y fuerza imaginativa por uno de los grandes escritores ingleses actuales.
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August 27, 2015
Silver is a sequel to the famous Robert Louis Stevenson novel Treasure Island, which I read many years ago. Even more, I enjoyed the Muppets version of the film immensely, however that is a separate issue. As far as sequels of classic novels go, typically I am not a fan. Usually, they are glorified fan fiction works - a poorly written attempt to relive the glory of enjoying and loving a previous novel.
This novel, however, was far more than just a higher quality of fan fiction. It was a work all to itself, drawing upon the history of the idea of Treasure Island to tell its own narrative. The style it used hinted at the previous novel and was beautifully written for a novel of two years ago. It felt like the classic prose of the 1800s or even the early 1900s and had a rhythm to it. As I read there were moments when the beauteous simplicity of a phrase as well as the clever conjecture of the main phrasing struck my eye.
The plot follows the children of Jim Hawkins and Long John Silver: Young Jim Hawkins and Natty Silver. Natty Silver, being a female presence, adds an extra dimension to the story - a romantic element that was not so present in the original text, as well as allowing for a more feminist reading. These two children are tasked with venturing back to Treasure Island to retrieve silver for Long John, as was left behind. However, what they find on the Island is more than they had expected: the island is now inhabited by tyrannical pirates who lord themselves over Jamaican slaves.
It's a novel with plenty of poignant themes and rhythmic moments and one I would not have read had it not been for university studies. However, I am glad I did read this novel and would recommend it to anyone who is a fan of seafaring adventures and poetic language. Or for those who are interested in themes of slavery, colonialism and adventure as explored in the late 1700s or early 1800s but written from modern perspectives.
This novel, however, was far more than just a higher quality of fan fiction. It was a work all to itself, drawing upon the history of the idea of Treasure Island to tell its own narrative. The style it used hinted at the previous novel and was beautifully written for a novel of two years ago. It felt like the classic prose of the 1800s or even the early 1900s and had a rhythm to it. As I read there were moments when the beauteous simplicity of a phrase as well as the clever conjecture of the main phrasing struck my eye.
The plot follows the children of Jim Hawkins and Long John Silver: Young Jim Hawkins and Natty Silver. Natty Silver, being a female presence, adds an extra dimension to the story - a romantic element that was not so present in the original text, as well as allowing for a more feminist reading. These two children are tasked with venturing back to Treasure Island to retrieve silver for Long John, as was left behind. However, what they find on the Island is more than they had expected: the island is now inhabited by tyrannical pirates who lord themselves over Jamaican slaves.
It's a novel with plenty of poignant themes and rhythmic moments and one I would not have read had it not been for university studies. However, I am glad I did read this novel and would recommend it to anyone who is a fan of seafaring adventures and poetic language. Or for those who are interested in themes of slavery, colonialism and adventure as explored in the late 1700s or early 1800s but written from modern perspectives.
October 1, 2012
Hey ho and a buttle of Rum, laddies, pull your cutlasses and sink this ship. It ain't fit to sail the pirate seas.
I must admit, I had high swashbuckling hopes for Silver. A sequel of sorts to Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson, a high rolling high seas adventure that's been a favorite of mine pretty much since I have been able to read.
Unfortunately Andrew Motion's Silver is a moralistic dud, mired in cliches and stuffy as chintz. Motion is an accomplished poet and editor, and no doubt, the writing is assured, the style effectively harks back to Stenvenson's wonderful tale of pirate derring-do and the story starts off promising enough with Jim Hawkins the younger, son of Jim Hawkins, the boy who traveled on the Hispaniola to the dreaded Treasure Island in the original text, tending bar for his embittered aging father. His life is solitary and frustrating until one fine day Natty, the daughter of Long John Silver, the most charismatic character in Treasure Island, and perhaps one of the most remarkable characters in literature generally, turns up on his doorstep and suggests he join her on a return journey, financed by her dying father, to the island, to extract more loot. A bit thin but so far so good.
The young teenagers have a ship at their disposal, commandeered by righteous Captain Beamish and manned by a crew of salt dogs vaguely reminiscent of the gang that shipped out on the Hispaniola, the ship in the original tale. But only just vaguely.
As soon as the intrepid explorers head West, the story hits deep waters and begins to drown. Because the premise is feeble, the story feels episodic, the connections between chapters first appear flimsy, then appear merely connected by the author's far too obvious moral make-up and finally collapse into-pseudo Christian or Enlightened (depending on your point of view) nonsense.
On the boat, young Jim, passive and ultimately boring throughout with not a filthy thought for Natty in his dull unimaginative mind, is challenged by the nephew of Israel Hands, one of the pirates in the original book, who gets so worked up about the boy's presence that he stabs a crew man to death and then jumps overboard drowning himself. The scene, through engagingly written, has little influence if any on the rest of the text and is symptomatic of Silver. One asks Why? expecting a punch line later that never comes.
The boat eventually reaches the island which is inhabited by the three pirates who were left there forty years earlier in Treasure Island. These guys should be dead or at least seriously decrepit by now, but they are having the times of their lives, partying with a group of slaves and their masters who got shipwrecked years earlier.
In Andrew Motion's book, literally and proverbially speaking, pirates are bad. There's no Jack Sparrow around and certainly no John Silver either. Pirates are bad, period. They drink, they rape, they kill, the island has made them insane. But not entertainingly so.
Jim and Natty are good, incensed and shaken to the core by this depravity and the rest of the book is really just a tale about how the world's evil can and must be fought. Yawn.
I doubt Andrew Motion has ever been anywhere other than the local supermarket or done anything other than give talks in Oxbridge - this is academic middle class white man's writing at its worst.
Stevenson was an intrepid traveler who was ill most of his life and ended his days on a tropical island. His book drips with moral ambiguity and the most fleshed out character, Silver was vile and heroic, animal and human in turns.
In Motion's Silver, these qualities are neatly separated between the bad guys and the good guys. And it gets worse.
As Jim and Natty stumble round the island, they discover strange animals. The dodo is familiar enough but squirrels the size of dogs sound like they have escaped from Dr. Moreau. No explanation, no reason for them to be in the story. Another creature is heard but never seen.
In the book's most depressing episode, Jim and Captain Beamish who behaves like a sentimental idiot who deserves to die (and die he does) encounter a beach full of sea lions that's straight out of a Greenpeace ad. Jim goes for a swim, underestimates the current, drowns and is saved by a sea lion pup. What?
The comments on slavery are revolting - Beamish changes the mission he is endowed with from finding the loot and getting the hell off the island to saving the 'negroes', a passive, Bible-clutching bunch, who know their place, except for the leader Scotland who escapes the clutches of the pirates only to end his life later after his wife is killed (in one of the very few good scenes as one of the evil pirates kills her for fun). Beamish endangers his crew because he is a progressive thinker. In one of the most stomach churning moments, he reflects that while slavery is by no means finished (We are talking early 19th century. And hasn't Motion ever read anything about iPhone factories in China?), it is to be stamped out at any cost, even at the risk of sacrificing his crew, ship and mission and himself. He gets most of what he wants, including a bullet in his head for his pathetic idealism.
No, this apparently is not a children's book written for retarded mid-western Christian families. Though it should come with a warning - Children's Advisory - Do not read this unless you want to go through life thinking that the world is a good place.
Eventually the pirates are killed, the slaves rescued, the treasure found, the young couple separated and reunited. All's well, we set sail, a huge storm catches up with the ship which is promptly thrown against a reef and sinks. Only Jim and Natty survive. Why? For the sequel of the sequel of course. Now that is 21st century. Treasure Island 3 has been threatened. Oh well. Maybe Batman can join in the next one.
I've spoiled it now.
Andrew Motion truly missed the boat. What made Treasure Island so very brilliant was Silver's ambiguity. He was one of the very first characters in literature to be believable. In a sense, Motion has turned the literary wheel backwards to a pre-Victorian age, where men were men and sheep were nervous and for this he should be hung, drawn and quartered. Even drinking is frowned upon. What rot.
An infuriating, depressing read, utterly out of sync not only with the pirate's life but also with the times we live in. Ho hum.
If you liked this review, check out my blog http://thedevilsroad.com
I must admit, I had high swashbuckling hopes for Silver. A sequel of sorts to Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson, a high rolling high seas adventure that's been a favorite of mine pretty much since I have been able to read.
Unfortunately Andrew Motion's Silver is a moralistic dud, mired in cliches and stuffy as chintz. Motion is an accomplished poet and editor, and no doubt, the writing is assured, the style effectively harks back to Stenvenson's wonderful tale of pirate derring-do and the story starts off promising enough with Jim Hawkins the younger, son of Jim Hawkins, the boy who traveled on the Hispaniola to the dreaded Treasure Island in the original text, tending bar for his embittered aging father. His life is solitary and frustrating until one fine day Natty, the daughter of Long John Silver, the most charismatic character in Treasure Island, and perhaps one of the most remarkable characters in literature generally, turns up on his doorstep and suggests he join her on a return journey, financed by her dying father, to the island, to extract more loot. A bit thin but so far so good.
The young teenagers have a ship at their disposal, commandeered by righteous Captain Beamish and manned by a crew of salt dogs vaguely reminiscent of the gang that shipped out on the Hispaniola, the ship in the original tale. But only just vaguely.
As soon as the intrepid explorers head West, the story hits deep waters and begins to drown. Because the premise is feeble, the story feels episodic, the connections between chapters first appear flimsy, then appear merely connected by the author's far too obvious moral make-up and finally collapse into-pseudo Christian or Enlightened (depending on your point of view) nonsense.
On the boat, young Jim, passive and ultimately boring throughout with not a filthy thought for Natty in his dull unimaginative mind, is challenged by the nephew of Israel Hands, one of the pirates in the original book, who gets so worked up about the boy's presence that he stabs a crew man to death and then jumps overboard drowning himself. The scene, through engagingly written, has little influence if any on the rest of the text and is symptomatic of Silver. One asks Why? expecting a punch line later that never comes.
The boat eventually reaches the island which is inhabited by the three pirates who were left there forty years earlier in Treasure Island. These guys should be dead or at least seriously decrepit by now, but they are having the times of their lives, partying with a group of slaves and their masters who got shipwrecked years earlier.
In Andrew Motion's book, literally and proverbially speaking, pirates are bad. There's no Jack Sparrow around and certainly no John Silver either. Pirates are bad, period. They drink, they rape, they kill, the island has made them insane. But not entertainingly so.
Jim and Natty are good, incensed and shaken to the core by this depravity and the rest of the book is really just a tale about how the world's evil can and must be fought. Yawn.
I doubt Andrew Motion has ever been anywhere other than the local supermarket or done anything other than give talks in Oxbridge - this is academic middle class white man's writing at its worst.
Stevenson was an intrepid traveler who was ill most of his life and ended his days on a tropical island. His book drips with moral ambiguity and the most fleshed out character, Silver was vile and heroic, animal and human in turns.
In Motion's Silver, these qualities are neatly separated between the bad guys and the good guys. And it gets worse.
As Jim and Natty stumble round the island, they discover strange animals. The dodo is familiar enough but squirrels the size of dogs sound like they have escaped from Dr. Moreau. No explanation, no reason for them to be in the story. Another creature is heard but never seen.
In the book's most depressing episode, Jim and Captain Beamish who behaves like a sentimental idiot who deserves to die (and die he does) encounter a beach full of sea lions that's straight out of a Greenpeace ad. Jim goes for a swim, underestimates the current, drowns and is saved by a sea lion pup. What?
The comments on slavery are revolting - Beamish changes the mission he is endowed with from finding the loot and getting the hell off the island to saving the 'negroes', a passive, Bible-clutching bunch, who know their place, except for the leader Scotland who escapes the clutches of the pirates only to end his life later after his wife is killed (in one of the very few good scenes as one of the evil pirates kills her for fun). Beamish endangers his crew because he is a progressive thinker. In one of the most stomach churning moments, he reflects that while slavery is by no means finished (We are talking early 19th century. And hasn't Motion ever read anything about iPhone factories in China?), it is to be stamped out at any cost, even at the risk of sacrificing his crew, ship and mission and himself. He gets most of what he wants, including a bullet in his head for his pathetic idealism.
No, this apparently is not a children's book written for retarded mid-western Christian families. Though it should come with a warning - Children's Advisory - Do not read this unless you want to go through life thinking that the world is a good place.
Eventually the pirates are killed, the slaves rescued, the treasure found, the young couple separated and reunited. All's well, we set sail, a huge storm catches up with the ship which is promptly thrown against a reef and sinks. Only Jim and Natty survive. Why? For the sequel of the sequel of course. Now that is 21st century. Treasure Island 3 has been threatened. Oh well. Maybe Batman can join in the next one.
I've spoiled it now.
Andrew Motion truly missed the boat. What made Treasure Island so very brilliant was Silver's ambiguity. He was one of the very first characters in literature to be believable. In a sense, Motion has turned the literary wheel backwards to a pre-Victorian age, where men were men and sheep were nervous and for this he should be hung, drawn and quartered. Even drinking is frowned upon. What rot.
An infuriating, depressing read, utterly out of sync not only with the pirate's life but also with the times we live in. Ho hum.
If you liked this review, check out my blog http://thedevilsroad.com
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 29, 2012
As seen on: Bookosaur
3.5 out of 5
Ahoy, mateys! For a split second, I thought about posting this entire review in seafarin' hearty talk (aka pirate speak), but I quickly came to my senses. You couldn't blame me, though, if I did, because for the past few days I've been on a rollicking adventure across (one) of the Seven Seas in search of booty...err...treasure. Translation: I've been reading Silver: Return to Treasure Island by Andrew Motion.
A sequel of sorts, Silver takes place some 40 years after the events of Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island, and tells the story of Jim Hawkins' son, Jim (I'll call him Young Jim to avoid confusion) and Long John Silver's daughter, Natty. Young Jim lives with his father and works at the family inn called the Hispaniola. Young Jim's father is a man who lives in the past, and spends his present retelling the adventures of his youth to anyone who will listen. One night, Young Jim is beckoned by a lone figure in a boat, who turns out to be Long John Silver's daughter, Natty. Natty proposes the two return to Treasure Island in search of the buried treasure that was left behind by their fathers. Up until now, Young Jim has led a fairly solitary and uneventful existence, so it doesn't take much convincing for him to steal the treasure map from his father's chest. Map in hand, ship and crew at the ready, and the promise of adventure awaiting him at every turn, Young Jim sets out with Natty and the two retrace their fathers' footsteps all the way to Treasure Island.
The voyage to the island is not entirely smooth sailing, however, as Young Jim and Natty face nasty weather and troublesome sailors, but it's their arrival at Treasure Island that proves to be the biggest challenge of all. It turns out a pirate's life is not a wonderful life after all, as Captain James Hook has led me to believe, at least not for the three pirates left marooned on Treasure Island by Young Jim's father and Long John Silver many years before. Years of desertion have driven the marooned pirates half-mad, and Young Jim and the rest of his crew are appalled at the atrocious acts they witness at the hands of the three stranded pirates.
Silver is a fun follow-up novel, best suited for those who wish to return to Treasure Island, and has all the elements for a riveting tale: adventure, buried treasure, a secret map, sword fights, Mr. Long John Silver himself, and, of course, Treasure Island. Motion has done an excellent job in keeping with the spirit of the original, and I have to say the language is pretty bang on, not to mention lyrical. Take this passage, for example:
For the most part, I quite enjoyed Silver, though I probably would have enjoyed it more if it were a bit shorter, since there seemed to be a bit of repetition and long-winded passages (as one reviewer calls it: "Long(Winded) John Silver"). Also, what this book is lacking - and what prevented it from receiving a four-star rating - are the archetypal elements that made Treasure Island such a defining piece of literature. I wanted to read about a one-legged pirate with a talking parrot on his shoulder; I wanted someone to yell "Shiver my timbers!" and sing "Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum"; and I wanted some unfortunate soul to walk the plank or fall victim to the Black Spot. In short, I wanted mutiny, plundering, and swashbuckling. Though we have Treasure Island to thank for these pirate tropes, these stereotypical pirate characteristics are not present in Silver. Compared to the colourful characters in Treasure Island, the characters in Silver, with the exception of only a couple, seem almost saintly, with their high morals, good deeds, and overall unpirate-like behaviour. Indeed, Silver has the basic elements of a pirate story, but it is decidedly less pirate-like than its predecessor.
Overall, a good read as long as ye be okay wit' th' fact that though 'twas a pirate's life fer Long John Silver 'n Jim Hawkins, 'tis more o' a sailor's life fer Young Jim 'n Natty. Savvy?
3.5 out of 5
Ahoy, mateys! For a split second, I thought about posting this entire review in seafarin' hearty talk (aka pirate speak), but I quickly came to my senses. You couldn't blame me, though, if I did, because for the past few days I've been on a rollicking adventure across (one) of the Seven Seas in search of booty...err...treasure. Translation: I've been reading Silver: Return to Treasure Island by Andrew Motion.
A sequel of sorts, Silver takes place some 40 years after the events of Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island, and tells the story of Jim Hawkins' son, Jim (I'll call him Young Jim to avoid confusion) and Long John Silver's daughter, Natty. Young Jim lives with his father and works at the family inn called the Hispaniola. Young Jim's father is a man who lives in the past, and spends his present retelling the adventures of his youth to anyone who will listen. One night, Young Jim is beckoned by a lone figure in a boat, who turns out to be Long John Silver's daughter, Natty. Natty proposes the two return to Treasure Island in search of the buried treasure that was left behind by their fathers. Up until now, Young Jim has led a fairly solitary and uneventful existence, so it doesn't take much convincing for him to steal the treasure map from his father's chest. Map in hand, ship and crew at the ready, and the promise of adventure awaiting him at every turn, Young Jim sets out with Natty and the two retrace their fathers' footsteps all the way to Treasure Island.
The voyage to the island is not entirely smooth sailing, however, as Young Jim and Natty face nasty weather and troublesome sailors, but it's their arrival at Treasure Island that proves to be the biggest challenge of all. It turns out a pirate's life is not a wonderful life after all, as Captain James Hook has led me to believe, at least not for the three pirates left marooned on Treasure Island by Young Jim's father and Long John Silver many years before. Years of desertion have driven the marooned pirates half-mad, and Young Jim and the rest of his crew are appalled at the atrocious acts they witness at the hands of the three stranded pirates.
Silver is a fun follow-up novel, best suited for those who wish to return to Treasure Island, and has all the elements for a riveting tale: adventure, buried treasure, a secret map, sword fights, Mr. Long John Silver himself, and, of course, Treasure Island. Motion has done an excellent job in keeping with the spirit of the original, and I have to say the language is pretty bang on, not to mention lyrical. Take this passage, for example:
All my senses quickened: every gleam of sunlight on the leaves around us seemed to be the blade of a sword, every scuffling bird the footstep of an enemy. - p. 174
For the most part, I quite enjoyed Silver, though I probably would have enjoyed it more if it were a bit shorter, since there seemed to be a bit of repetition and long-winded passages (as one reviewer calls it: "Long(Winded) John Silver"). Also, what this book is lacking - and what prevented it from receiving a four-star rating - are the archetypal elements that made Treasure Island such a defining piece of literature. I wanted to read about a one-legged pirate with a talking parrot on his shoulder; I wanted someone to yell "Shiver my timbers!" and sing "Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum"; and I wanted some unfortunate soul to walk the plank or fall victim to the Black Spot. In short, I wanted mutiny, plundering, and swashbuckling. Though we have Treasure Island to thank for these pirate tropes, these stereotypical pirate characteristics are not present in Silver. Compared to the colourful characters in Treasure Island, the characters in Silver, with the exception of only a couple, seem almost saintly, with their high morals, good deeds, and overall unpirate-like behaviour. Indeed, Silver has the basic elements of a pirate story, but it is decidedly less pirate-like than its predecessor.
Overall, a good read as long as ye be okay wit' th' fact that though 'twas a pirate's life fer Long John Silver 'n Jim Hawkins, 'tis more o' a sailor's life fer Young Jim 'n Natty. Savvy?
June 12, 2012
Miss Spicer was 'my' librarian when I was young. Her dark dresses, severe bun and black glasses gave her a stern air which definitely deterred anyone from running and talking loudly in the library. But, it was she who fed and fostered my love of reading. I always asked her what I should read next. To her credit, she never, ever brushed me off. One summer she decided I would read the classics - Swiss Family Robinson, Robinson Crusoe, Treasure Island and more. It was the sense of adventure, the unknown and putting myself into the character's shoes that spirited me away for many a hot afternoon.
With the release Andrew Motion's new book Silver - Return to Treasure Island - I was yet again transported away on a adventure with pirates, parrots and plunder.
Jim Hawkins returned to England with his share of the treasure and now, in 1802, is an innkeeper. He runs the inn with the help of his son Jim. Jim has grown up hearing the tale of Treasure Island over and over again. And so has Natty, who shows up one night with a proposition for young Jim from her father - Long John Silver. Silver wants young Jim to 'obtain' the map to Treasure Island from his father. There is still treasure to be recovered and Silver will provide the ship, captain and crew for the voyage. He is too infirm to go himself, so Natty will go in his place, disguised as a boy.
Andrew Motion is a superb storyteller. His tale pays homage to Stevenson, keeping the tone and language true to the time. The book isn't a fast paced swashbuckler, although there is of course a requisite sword fight. Rather, it is somewhat leisurely in spots, allowing us to take in Jim's narrative and descriptions. A third of the book is devoted to getting to the island. Once there, Motion does a great job of re imagining what the island would be like - and what happened to those left marooned many years ago. It is here that the story takes off - good vs. evil, love lost and found, duty and honour and more. In a sly nod to the original, the crewman most often in the crow's nest, keeping an eye out - is named Stevenson. The ending left me a bit unsatisfied. The door has been left open for a sequel's sequel.
I'm not sure if children today would enjoy this sequel or not, but this adult quite enjoyed being transported back to her childhood.
With the release Andrew Motion's new book Silver - Return to Treasure Island - I was yet again transported away on a adventure with pirates, parrots and plunder.
Jim Hawkins returned to England with his share of the treasure and now, in 1802, is an innkeeper. He runs the inn with the help of his son Jim. Jim has grown up hearing the tale of Treasure Island over and over again. And so has Natty, who shows up one night with a proposition for young Jim from her father - Long John Silver. Silver wants young Jim to 'obtain' the map to Treasure Island from his father. There is still treasure to be recovered and Silver will provide the ship, captain and crew for the voyage. He is too infirm to go himself, so Natty will go in his place, disguised as a boy.
Andrew Motion is a superb storyteller. His tale pays homage to Stevenson, keeping the tone and language true to the time. The book isn't a fast paced swashbuckler, although there is of course a requisite sword fight. Rather, it is somewhat leisurely in spots, allowing us to take in Jim's narrative and descriptions. A third of the book is devoted to getting to the island. Once there, Motion does a great job of re imagining what the island would be like - and what happened to those left marooned many years ago. It is here that the story takes off - good vs. evil, love lost and found, duty and honour and more. In a sly nod to the original, the crewman most often in the crow's nest, keeping an eye out - is named Stevenson. The ending left me a bit unsatisfied. The door has been left open for a sequel's sequel.
I'm not sure if children today would enjoy this sequel or not, but this adult quite enjoyed being transported back to her childhood.
December 27, 2013
Yay I finally finished this! Not even David Tennant as narrator can save this bland story, but because of him I can't bear to give it just the one star it really deserves.
March 20, 2017
I guess I'm in the minority in thinking this book was great but whatever. I did think it great just like I like a lot of well-done sequels. Sure, Motion is RL Stevenson but he's no slouch either.
unfinished
August 23, 2015This should be a rip-roaring adventure, but it's gotten off to a slow and ponderous start and after almost a hundred pages, I think I'm going to maroon it on an island somewhere.
April 6, 2012
This was a very interesting sequel to "Treasure Island" - not unique in that - I have seen one which follows LJS's retirement on Madagascar. Having left some pirates and silver on the island it makes sense that somebody would return for the treasure but daft not to have prepared to fight for it by remembering to bring some decent weapons and a few Marines rather than the author of the original tale. Jim Hawkins' son and Old Barbecue's daughter make an unlikely pairing, especially as Natty is disguised as a boy for long periods to reduce the risk of her being violated. The plot is fairly predictable but the writing is excellent. It does proceed at a cracking pace early on. I did wonder about some anachronisms - Brown Bread me hearties? Got to watch that fibre intake - and the inevitable political correctness that would not have been tolerated in supposedly contemporaneous account. Oh, and Billy Bones' map is hard to distinguish without a magnifying glass. The author certainly does not flinch from depicting the bloody details of sudden violent death. I did find the climactic battle scene to be overly drawn out as though it were being written to be viewed in slow (Andrew?) motion. There's even a long "Nooooooo" from Jim, as he tries to save his father figure that brought intrusive Star Wars parodies to mind. I had to skim through this bit and for some reason got terribly anxious about the silver afterwards. In fact I can't remember ever being so apprehensive while reading "Just get the stuff on board and get the hell out you fools." Perusal of the chapter titles before reading does rather forewarn you that the ending is unlikely to be upbeat.
Whisper it softly but I preferred the - to my mind - unsurpassable "Biggles Flies West" by Captain W.E. Johns. That book contains a really memorable (and short) climactic battle scene and a more satisfying ending.
Whisper it softly but I preferred the - to my mind - unsurpassable "Biggles Flies West" by Captain W.E. Johns. That book contains a really memorable (and short) climactic battle scene and a more satisfying ending.
February 2, 2013
**edited 11/28/13
Silver is a cute and very close-to-canon continuation of Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island. If you check it out on audio, it is narrated by none other than David Tennant, alias The Tenth Doctor from the TV programme Doctor Who.
According to the story, Jim Hawkins of Treasure Island fame got his treasure, bought an inn, and settled down to what turned out to be very short-lived wedded bliss. His son, also Jim, who I will refer to as Jim#2 (although as far as I recall he's really Jim#3), grew up with a distant, grieving father whose main interaction was to tell story after story about his adventures on the high seas. One night, Jim#2 is lured out of the inn by a young girl, who turns out to be none other than the daughter of the infamous Long John Silver. And when Jim#2 meets Long John, the old pirate has a story of his own: he tells Jim#2 that the original treasure seekers only brought back the gold from the island, leaving...wait for it...all of the silver behind. Soon, Jim#2 is tempted to steal his father's map and start an adventure of his own.
...And that's all I'm going to post here.
The rest of my (rather verbose) review is posted over here at Booklikes.
Why?
I strongly disapprove of GoodReads' new policy of censorship, so I will no longer post complete reviews here.
(The link brings you to a summary of The Story So Far, which has facts and links so you can make up your own mind about the GR debacle.)
Silver is a cute and very close-to-canon continuation of Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island. If you check it out on audio, it is narrated by none other than David Tennant, alias The Tenth Doctor from the TV programme Doctor Who.
According to the story, Jim Hawkins of Treasure Island fame got his treasure, bought an inn, and settled down to what turned out to be very short-lived wedded bliss. His son, also Jim, who I will refer to as Jim#2 (although as far as I recall he's really Jim#3), grew up with a distant, grieving father whose main interaction was to tell story after story about his adventures on the high seas. One night, Jim#2 is lured out of the inn by a young girl, who turns out to be none other than the daughter of the infamous Long John Silver. And when Jim#2 meets Long John, the old pirate has a story of his own: he tells Jim#2 that the original treasure seekers only brought back the gold from the island, leaving...wait for it...all of the silver behind. Soon, Jim#2 is tempted to steal his father's map and start an adventure of his own.
...And that's all I'm going to post here.
The rest of my (rather verbose) review is posted over here at Booklikes.
Why?
I strongly disapprove of GoodReads' new policy of censorship, so I will no longer post complete reviews here.
(The link brings you to a summary of The Story So Far, which has facts and links so you can make up your own mind about the GR debacle.)
July 6, 2018
This ‘sequel’ to Treasure Island is difficult to assess. Just about deserves 4*. Sequels are difficult to get right, and in this case I suspect many GR comments are from people who only think they have read the unabridged book. A pretty good effort.
Plus points:
Beautifully written, rhythmical prose that is an absolute pleasure to read.
Language is a good mix of past and present - never feels anachronistic or artificially dated.
A good basic plot - cabin boy Jim Hawkins’ son going back, after 40 years, with ‘someone else’, to get the rest of the silver.
Good descriptions of life on the Essex marshes, at sea, on the island.
A decent-enough number of episodes of danger and derringer-do.
Minus points:
Lacked the necessary pace and verve in places.
A couple of silly polemical episodes of 21st century sensibility.
An ending that over-obviously destroyed the harmony of a good tale, and said ‘wait for the next book in the series.’ Disappointing.
The GR blurb:
‘A rip-roaring sequel to Treasure Island—Robert Louis Stevenson’s beloved classic—about two young friends and their high-seas adventure with dangerous pirates and long-lost treasure.
It's almost forty years after the events of Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island: Jim Hawkins now runs an inn called the Hispaniola on the English coast with his son, Jim, and Long John Silver has returned to England to live in obscurity withTheir lives are quiet and unremarkable; their adventures have seemingly ended.
But for Jim and Natty, the adventure is just beginning. One night, Natty approaches young Jim with a proposition: return to Treasure Island and find the remaining treasure that their fathers left behind so many years before. As Jim and Natty set sail in their fathers' footsteps, they quickly learn that this journey will not be easy. Immediately, they come up against murderous pirates, long-held grudges, and greed and deception lurking in every corner. And when they arrive on Treasure Island, they find terrible scenes awaiting them—difficulties which require all their wit as well as their courage. Nor does the adventure end there, since they have to sail homeward again...
Andrew Motion’s sequel—rollicking, heartfelt, and utterly brilliant—would make Robert Louis Stevenson proud.’
Plus points:
Beautifully written, rhythmical prose that is an absolute pleasure to read.
Language is a good mix of past and present - never feels anachronistic or artificially dated.
A good basic plot - cabin boy Jim Hawkins’ son going back, after 40 years, with ‘someone else’, to get the rest of the silver.
Good descriptions of life on the Essex marshes, at sea, on the island.
A decent-enough number of episodes of danger and derringer-do.
Minus points:
Lacked the necessary pace and verve in places.
A couple of silly polemical episodes of 21st century sensibility.
An ending that over-obviously destroyed the harmony of a good tale, and said ‘wait for the next book in the series.’ Disappointing.
The GR blurb:
‘A rip-roaring sequel to Treasure Island—Robert Louis Stevenson’s beloved classic—about two young friends and their high-seas adventure with dangerous pirates and long-lost treasure.
It's almost forty years after the events of Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island: Jim Hawkins now runs an inn called the Hispaniola on the English coast with his son, Jim, and Long John Silver has returned to England to live in obscurity withTheir lives are quiet and unremarkable; their adventures have seemingly ended.
But for Jim and Natty, the adventure is just beginning. One night, Natty approaches young Jim with a proposition: return to Treasure Island and find the remaining treasure that their fathers left behind so many years before. As Jim and Natty set sail in their fathers' footsteps, they quickly learn that this journey will not be easy. Immediately, they come up against murderous pirates, long-held grudges, and greed and deception lurking in every corner. And when they arrive on Treasure Island, they find terrible scenes awaiting them—difficulties which require all their wit as well as their courage. Nor does the adventure end there, since they have to sail homeward again...
Andrew Motion’s sequel—rollicking, heartfelt, and utterly brilliant—would make Robert Louis Stevenson proud.’
October 9, 2021
I liked the concept of taking a famous and beloved classic novel and do a sequel to it, unfortunately I didn't enjoy it as much as I had hoped. Could be that Treasure island isn't one of my favorites to begin with. It wasn't a bad book, but wasn't invested enough in the plot nor characters.
June 10, 2015
Lange habe icht nicht mehr ein so überflüssiges, ärgerliches, rundheraus schlechtes Buch gelesen! Im Buchladen sah es verlockend aus, die Idee klang vielversprechend: eine Fortschreibung der Schatzinsel, Sohn und Tochter von Jim Hawkins und Long John Silver kehren noch einmal zurück, um den Rest des Schatzes zu bergen. Warum nicht?
Aber das Ergebnis ist einfach nur grottig. Der Plot: in allen Details hanebüchen, unlogisch und absurd. Die Personen: Pappfiguren, die an den Fäden des Autors hierhin und dorthin gehen, in gestelzten Dialogen dummes Zeug von sich geben und vollkommen unverständliche Entscheidungen treffen. Zeitkolorit und Nautik: schweigen wir lieber davon, der Autor hat schlichtweg keine Ahnung wovon er schreibt. Schreibstil: Abgründe, ich sage nur Abgründe! Das Buch ist in der ersten Person als Rückblick von Jim Hawkins jun. geschrieben, und die Hälfte des Buch ist angefüllt mit schwülstigen Selbstbetrachtungen, bei denen man nur schreiend weglaufen möchte. Beispiel gefällig? "Ich drückte diese Gedanken nicht in Worten aus - natürlich nicht. Sie überkamen mich wie eine Welle der Kraft, der Möglichkeit, die ich seitdem in solchen Begriffen für mich fasse." WÜRG Oder hier noch ein Beispiel für den zupackenden, vorwärtstreibenden Stil des Autors: "Dann blickte ich wieder zum Weißen Felsen. Dann sah ich die Farne, die den Weißen Felsen bedeckten. Dann sah ich zwischen den Farnen einen Schatten. Dann sah ich wie dieser Schatten Form annahm. Dann sah ich, wie sich die Form in eine Person verwandelte. Dann sah ich, dass die Person ein Gesicht hatte. Dann sah ich, dass das Gesicht Augen und eine Nase und einen Mund hatte. Dann sah ich Natty." AHHHHHHHHHHHHH Ich habe wirklich lange lange lange nicht mehr (wenn überhaupt jemals) einen solchen grottenschlechten Scheiß gelesen.
Null Punkte! Setzen!
Aber das Ergebnis ist einfach nur grottig. Der Plot: in allen Details hanebüchen, unlogisch und absurd. Die Personen: Pappfiguren, die an den Fäden des Autors hierhin und dorthin gehen, in gestelzten Dialogen dummes Zeug von sich geben und vollkommen unverständliche Entscheidungen treffen. Zeitkolorit und Nautik: schweigen wir lieber davon, der Autor hat schlichtweg keine Ahnung wovon er schreibt. Schreibstil: Abgründe, ich sage nur Abgründe! Das Buch ist in der ersten Person als Rückblick von Jim Hawkins jun. geschrieben, und die Hälfte des Buch ist angefüllt mit schwülstigen Selbstbetrachtungen, bei denen man nur schreiend weglaufen möchte. Beispiel gefällig? "Ich drückte diese Gedanken nicht in Worten aus - natürlich nicht. Sie überkamen mich wie eine Welle der Kraft, der Möglichkeit, die ich seitdem in solchen Begriffen für mich fasse." WÜRG Oder hier noch ein Beispiel für den zupackenden, vorwärtstreibenden Stil des Autors: "Dann blickte ich wieder zum Weißen Felsen. Dann sah ich die Farne, die den Weißen Felsen bedeckten. Dann sah ich zwischen den Farnen einen Schatten. Dann sah ich wie dieser Schatten Form annahm. Dann sah ich, wie sich die Form in eine Person verwandelte. Dann sah ich, dass die Person ein Gesicht hatte. Dann sah ich, dass das Gesicht Augen und eine Nase und einen Mund hatte. Dann sah ich Natty." AHHHHHHHHHHHHH Ich habe wirklich lange lange lange nicht mehr (wenn überhaupt jemals) einen solchen grottenschlechten Scheiß gelesen.
Null Punkte! Setzen!
February 2, 2014
Neuinterpretation
Inzwischen ist Jim Hawkins dem Kindesalter entwachsen. Sein Vater, der damals das Abenteuer auf der Schatzinsel erlebte, lebt nach dem Tod von Jims Mutter so vor sich hin. Jim kann sich nicht vorstellen, dass er einmal unter der Fuchtel seines Vaters die Schenke weiterführen soll. Ihm kommt es daher sehr gelegen als Natty, die etwa in seinem Alter ist, im wahrsten Sinne des Wortes bei ihm vorbei schippert und ihn quasi entführt. John Silvers Tochter nimmt John mit nach London, seine Begegnung mit Long John Silver ist zwar unheimlich, doch Jims Abenteuerlust ist geweckt. Eine Mannschaft gibt es schon und ein Schiff auch, Natty und Jim machen sich erneut auf den Weg zur Schatzinsel.
Sehr gelungen ist diese Fortsetzung des Klassikers von Robert Louis Stevenson, dessen Geschichte wohl fast jeder kennt. Bezüge zum Original sind vorprogrammiert, doch da Jims Abenteuer allein schon zeitlich etliche Jahre später angesiedelt sind, handelt es sich bei dieser Neuinterpretation nicht um einen billigen Abklatsch. Nein, Bekanntes wird hier sehr schön mit Unbekanntem verwoben, so dass doch eine neue Story zustande kommt, die den Leser zu unterhalten weiß. Mit Phantasie begabt erzählt Jim von dem Abenteuer seines Lebens. Seine Worte sprechen von großen Empfindungen und Eindrücken, die Schilderungen von Erlebnissen, Natur und Menschen drücken große Detailverliebtheit aus. Ein Buch der heutigen Zeit hervorragend in die Vergangenheit, in der die Handlung angesiedelt ist, hineingeschrieben.
Ich habe die deutschsprachige Fassung erschienen im mare-Verlag gelesen.
Inzwischen ist Jim Hawkins dem Kindesalter entwachsen. Sein Vater, der damals das Abenteuer auf der Schatzinsel erlebte, lebt nach dem Tod von Jims Mutter so vor sich hin. Jim kann sich nicht vorstellen, dass er einmal unter der Fuchtel seines Vaters die Schenke weiterführen soll. Ihm kommt es daher sehr gelegen als Natty, die etwa in seinem Alter ist, im wahrsten Sinne des Wortes bei ihm vorbei schippert und ihn quasi entführt. John Silvers Tochter nimmt John mit nach London, seine Begegnung mit Long John Silver ist zwar unheimlich, doch Jims Abenteuerlust ist geweckt. Eine Mannschaft gibt es schon und ein Schiff auch, Natty und Jim machen sich erneut auf den Weg zur Schatzinsel.
Sehr gelungen ist diese Fortsetzung des Klassikers von Robert Louis Stevenson, dessen Geschichte wohl fast jeder kennt. Bezüge zum Original sind vorprogrammiert, doch da Jims Abenteuer allein schon zeitlich etliche Jahre später angesiedelt sind, handelt es sich bei dieser Neuinterpretation nicht um einen billigen Abklatsch. Nein, Bekanntes wird hier sehr schön mit Unbekanntem verwoben, so dass doch eine neue Story zustande kommt, die den Leser zu unterhalten weiß. Mit Phantasie begabt erzählt Jim von dem Abenteuer seines Lebens. Seine Worte sprechen von großen Empfindungen und Eindrücken, die Schilderungen von Erlebnissen, Natur und Menschen drücken große Detailverliebtheit aus. Ein Buch der heutigen Zeit hervorragend in die Vergangenheit, in der die Handlung angesiedelt ist, hineingeschrieben.
Ich habe die deutschsprachige Fassung erschienen im mare-Verlag gelesen.
April 22, 2012
The original Treasure Island is one of my favourite books and one which I read a couple of times when I was a little boy and has stayed with me all my life (I think it's why I love Pirates of the Carribbean so much!). I was very excited when I heard that Andrew Motion was writing a sequel to Treasure Island! I had to go out and buy a copy as soon as it was released.
I haven't been disappointed with "Silver - The Return to Treasure Island" it's set quite a few years on from the original and begins with the original Jim Hawkins, now an old man and running the inn, The Hispaniola on the murky eastern marshes of the Thames, his son also called Jim Hawkins longs for adventure having been brought up on his fathers tales of Treasure Island. One night a girl called Natty arrives on a boat with a proposal for young Jim to accompany her on a chartered ship The Nightingale to return to Treasure Island to find the "bar silver" said to be still there. Natty is the daughter of none other than Long John Silver himself. Stealing the map from his father, Jim and Natty embark on a new adventure to Treasure Island along with some new companions and Captain Beamish. What they find is very unexpected indeed! A fun read that captures the innocence and high adventure from the original book, a great read!
I haven't been disappointed with "Silver - The Return to Treasure Island" it's set quite a few years on from the original and begins with the original Jim Hawkins, now an old man and running the inn, The Hispaniola on the murky eastern marshes of the Thames, his son also called Jim Hawkins longs for adventure having been brought up on his fathers tales of Treasure Island. One night a girl called Natty arrives on a boat with a proposal for young Jim to accompany her on a chartered ship The Nightingale to return to Treasure Island to find the "bar silver" said to be still there. Natty is the daughter of none other than Long John Silver himself. Stealing the map from his father, Jim and Natty embark on a new adventure to Treasure Island along with some new companions and Captain Beamish. What they find is very unexpected indeed! A fun read that captures the innocence and high adventure from the original book, a great read!
December 31, 2019
3.5 stars because I did enjoy it the story overall, even if it wasn't quite Treasure Island. I rounded up mainly because it was narrated by David Tennant and also because I thought the author did a good job creating the feel of the original story, even if the characters weren't quite as rich. This story follows the children of Jim Hawkins (Jim Hawkins III?) and Long John Silver (Natty) who are charged by LJS to go back to Treasure Island and find the Silver that was left behind all those years ago. The bad guys are the marooned pirates plus a bunch of slavers. This time, Jim Hawkins doesn't need to fight pirates from his own ship, but there is still plenty of bloodshed and killing, including that of a character I loved. The ending was a bit dragged out, what with the slavers and the storm, and the author left you hanging a bit, which makes me think there are going to be additional volumes in this series. I was kind of disappointed about that since I thought this was going to be the epilogue to the first book. Will I check out the other books in the series when they eventually get written? Probably. But I'm also not dying to read them.
December 2, 2020
Actual rating: 2.5 stars.
In the end, this story definitely started to grow on me, but it was not exactly what I hoped it would be. Fan sequels can be quite touchy and this was definitely on the list.
Motion did a good job of keeping the tone and some of Stevenson's stylistic choices, but at times what is endearing in a classic novel isn't necessarily a good trait for a modern publication. The characterization was at times flat and the story itself really relied on a good knowledge of Treasure Island. Not to say that I don't know Treasure Island, it's a book I've enjoyed for a long time, but it's been six or seven years since I read it last. But I feel like a lot of the story involved pulling on the reader's heartstrings from their connections to the old characters rather than always building a new one or creating a really deep character.
I don't know, this is a hard one. If you like "son of" sequels or fanfics, then you might like this, but otherwise I'd give it a pass.
In the end, this story definitely started to grow on me, but it was not exactly what I hoped it would be. Fan sequels can be quite touchy and this was definitely on the list.
Motion did a good job of keeping the tone and some of Stevenson's stylistic choices, but at times what is endearing in a classic novel isn't necessarily a good trait for a modern publication. The characterization was at times flat and the story itself really relied on a good knowledge of Treasure Island. Not to say that I don't know Treasure Island, it's a book I've enjoyed for a long time, but it's been six or seven years since I read it last. But I feel like a lot of the story involved pulling on the reader's heartstrings from their connections to the old characters rather than always building a new one or creating a really deep character.
I don't know, this is a hard one. If you like "son of" sequels or fanfics, then you might like this, but otherwise I'd give it a pass.
May 2, 2012
So. There are those who will accuse me of only reading this because the audiobook is read by David Tennant, and I could listen to that man read to me for YEARS. This is true. But more true is the fact that THERE ARE PIRATES! And man, do I love pirates.
This is a really good story, and the language is similar to the original Treasure Island, which is awesome. I'm giving it 3 stars for two reasons: One, it's a bit heavy on morality, which, while it suits the language of the book, is still kind of annoying in the 21st century, which is when the book was WRITTEN, even if it wasn't when the book was SET. Also, there's a marked lack of swordfighting, which is the entire point of a pirate story, as far as I'm concerned. And Nattie Silver is no Charlotte Doyle. (DAMMIT! ANOTHER SNEAKY LOVE STORY!) Though there's a scene on a clifftop where she's pretty kick-ass.
There IS a really good knife fight, and one awesome storm scene. Also, the surprise ending is worth the price of admission.
This is a really good story, and the language is similar to the original Treasure Island, which is awesome. I'm giving it 3 stars for two reasons: One, it's a bit heavy on morality, which, while it suits the language of the book, is still kind of annoying in the 21st century, which is when the book was WRITTEN, even if it wasn't when the book was SET. Also, there's a marked lack of swordfighting, which is the entire point of a pirate story, as far as I'm concerned. And Nattie Silver is no Charlotte Doyle. (DAMMIT! ANOTHER SNEAKY LOVE STORY!) Though there's a scene on a clifftop where she's pretty kick-ass.
There IS a really good knife fight, and one awesome storm scene. Also, the surprise ending is worth the price of admission.
July 7, 2012
I was a little disappointed with this book to be honest. It's not that it wasn't beautifully written, it's just that it was a lot less exciting than I remember Treasure Island being. I suspect if I'd read more of Andrew Motion's work, I might have a different opinion, but coming to the book as a fan of Treasure Island, the characters just felt a bit weak to me.
I kept waiting for the darker side to kick in, for betrayal and plotting, for the characters to grow up or change, but it was all in a rather philosophical reflective tone, which took a lot the punch out of the events. I kept seeing places where the story might take a more sinister turn, and instead it took an easier option. The parrot crying 'leave me alone' was a good example.
However, that said, the description of the island, of the sound of surf pounding relentlessly on the shore, will stay in my mind for a long time.
I kept waiting for the darker side to kick in, for betrayal and plotting, for the characters to grow up or change, but it was all in a rather philosophical reflective tone, which took a lot the punch out of the events. I kept seeing places where the story might take a more sinister turn, and instead it took an easier option. The parrot crying 'leave me alone' was a good example.
However, that said, the description of the island, of the sound of surf pounding relentlessly on the shore, will stay in my mind for a long time.
May 23, 2023
“Silver” could best be summed up by a traditional pirate warning: “Beware all ye who enter here.”
This book has so many things going for it: continuing one of the world’s greatest adventure tales; authored by an excellent writer, former UK Poet Laureate, Andrew Motion (his biography of John Keats is outstanding!); and narration by the inimitable David Tennant. So why is it SO BORING? Perhaps because Silver, one of the best literary anti-heroes ever, is now in his 80s and just a shadow of himself, plus he’s a very minor player in this book - given just a few pages at the beginning of the story - and there’s no other character that shines as well as LJS did in the first. Or perhaps it’s because the plot is dull and plodding and is basically a badly done re-hash of the original. Or perhaps it’s because many of the characters are poorly fleshed out and two dimensional, all of them being seen and analyzed (and over-analyzed) solely through the eyes of Jim Hawkins junior. But the worst insult is Motion had the nerve to follow up this awful book with a sequel to the sequel. (“The New World”.) Why?!
I gave it two stars only because Motion is, in technique, a very good writer.
This book has so many things going for it: continuing one of the world’s greatest adventure tales; authored by an excellent writer, former UK Poet Laureate, Andrew Motion (his biography of John Keats is outstanding!); and narration by the inimitable David Tennant. So why is it SO BORING? Perhaps because Silver, one of the best literary anti-heroes ever, is now in his 80s and just a shadow of himself, plus he’s a very minor player in this book - given just a few pages at the beginning of the story - and there’s no other character that shines as well as LJS did in the first. Or perhaps it’s because the plot is dull and plodding and is basically a badly done re-hash of the original. Or perhaps it’s because many of the characters are poorly fleshed out and two dimensional, all of them being seen and analyzed (and over-analyzed) solely through the eyes of Jim Hawkins junior. But the worst insult is Motion had the nerve to follow up this awful book with a sequel to the sequel. (“The New World”.) Why?!
I gave it two stars only because Motion is, in technique, a very good writer.
June 16, 2024
Did I think this novel was a literary marvel, or the most epic story ever told, or had the best characters, writing, or wit? No! Far from it.
Did I order the sequel on Amazon within 10 minutes of finishing reading this novel? Yes!
I have always had an interest in pirates. A few years ago I read (or re-read) Robert Louis Stevenson's 1883 smash, "Treasure Island", rated it 3-stars, and commented in my review, "Fun story, and fun read. Parts are a bit unbelievable. But it's a good page-turner."
So, I was intrigued when I stumbled upon poet and author, Andrew Motion's 2012 novel "Silver: Return to Treasure Island" and thought I should read it.
I'm glad I did. I won't say to much, because I don't want to spoil anything. But I found it to be an exciting adventure having taken into account everything that occurred in the original source material and imagining: what happens next?
I was immediately drawn to the writing, specifically the style of the story being retold by Jim Hawkins. Not the narrator, Jim Hawkins, of Stevenson's "Treasure Island", but his son (also named Jim Hawkins) who begins by catching readers up to speed on what's happened since his father returned to England and split up the treasure back in 1759. The style of this narration precisely mirrored the source book, which I found to be a treat.
Overall I enjoyed the story, loved the action, and can't wait to discover what happens next. It's quite an adventure!
However, I might warn that several parts of the novel are quite dark. Perhaps my imagination was filling in some of the things left unsaid. All forms of human depravity come into the story told here.
Thankfully, overall an exciting tale that left me wanting more.
Did I order the sequel on Amazon within 10 minutes of finishing reading this novel? Yes!
I have always had an interest in pirates. A few years ago I read (or re-read) Robert Louis Stevenson's 1883 smash, "Treasure Island", rated it 3-stars, and commented in my review, "Fun story, and fun read. Parts are a bit unbelievable. But it's a good page-turner."
So, I was intrigued when I stumbled upon poet and author, Andrew Motion's 2012 novel "Silver: Return to Treasure Island" and thought I should read it.
I'm glad I did. I won't say to much, because I don't want to spoil anything. But I found it to be an exciting adventure having taken into account everything that occurred in the original source material and imagining: what happens next?
I was immediately drawn to the writing, specifically the style of the story being retold by Jim Hawkins. Not the narrator, Jim Hawkins, of Stevenson's "Treasure Island", but his son (also named Jim Hawkins) who begins by catching readers up to speed on what's happened since his father returned to England and split up the treasure back in 1759. The style of this narration precisely mirrored the source book, which I found to be a treat.
Overall I enjoyed the story, loved the action, and can't wait to discover what happens next. It's quite an adventure!
However, I might warn that several parts of the novel are quite dark. Perhaps my imagination was filling in some of the things left unsaid. All forms of human depravity come into the story told here.
Thankfully, overall an exciting tale that left me wanting more.
December 7, 2021
Ähm, nein.
November 27, 2020
A.M.A.Z.I.N.G.!!!!!!!
March 6, 2014
I should know better. Really, I should never expect any sequel (especially written hundreds of years later by a separate author) to be very good. I'm busy scratching my head this morning over how to God this book ended up on my to-reads.
Anyhow, there are lots and lots of problems with this book, but I shall only highlight a few of them. The most egregious was the 40 years span between ending of TI and beginning of Silver. I do not understand why this was necessary. From the start, I was horrified to think that Silver (who was at least 30 at end of TI) had a kid the same age as Jim's kid (who was in my recollection more like 12 at the end of TI). At some point Motion tries to reconcile this by commenting that Jim Sr. was 18 at the end of TI (not sure I buy that one, but okay) and that Nat's mom is in her 60s. This still means that in the late 1700s, Silver was fathering a child at 50 (or older), his wife was pregnant older than 40 (again let me remind folks that THIS IS IN THE LATE 1700s) AND that the fearsome pirates that our young protagonists find on the island are also in their 70s. Huh? Really? I was trying to figure out the whole first 1/3 of the book why Motion felt he needed such a time lapse (couldn't it have been 25 years...both Jim and Silver had kids within 7 years of end of TI...much MORE PLAUSIBLE) and then we landed on the Island and there was a virtual city. Oh, yes, this makes sense he needed 40 years for a second generation to arise on TI and create awful nemesis and built a village. Uh, no. The pirates (leaders, those snarky 70 year olds) were actually ALONE on the island for 35 years. It is not 2nd generation slaves or masters that we see, it is the originals and their newly (only 5 years) acquired slaves. What? Again, why the 40 years?? As one can see, this part really, really bugged me.
The only thing that makes even a bit of sense is that the 40 year lag went to explain the aversion to slavery felt by the people on the Nightingale (early 1800s vs. late 1700s), but I still thought that was anachronistic. I'm not sure any newly arrived boat load of folks (even decent upstanding ones) would be so horrified to find that a boatload of slaves crashed on the island and the slaves were still treated as slaves. I'm not defending the institution of slavery here, mind you, but come on...these were people who had been removed from one slave situation on their way to be sold to another slave master. Why, exactly are the crew of Nightingale so offended that they are treated like, um..SLAVES?
Some other tiny things that bugged me:
1. Silver is living in his old place of residence, with his old wife and yet is never apprehended by police (I thought the whole point at the end of TI of him jumping ship is that he was to avoid going back to England and having to face trial). Not only this, but he and his story are so well known that all the sailors on Nightingale give Nat due respect. If everyone knows who he is and where he lives why exactly is he not in jail? Or hung on the gallows?
2. Why does Israel Hand's nephew even have to come into play? And again, why is he not an old man?
3. It was obvious that the silver was on the white rock as soon as Nat began walking there in the middle of the night.
4. Why would marooned pirates who already have a perfectly comfortable life on the island (complete with slaves and booze) care about the silver? Clearly, if they are going to leave they would need some cash, but on the island their treasure is virtually useless.
Overall it was a fast-paced action book. Mildly entertaining with plot twists and "surprises" that are visible from 4 knots. Not really recommended for an adult reader, might be okay for a kid who really liked TI and would not be very critical.
Anyhow, there are lots and lots of problems with this book, but I shall only highlight a few of them. The most egregious was the 40 years span between ending of TI and beginning of Silver. I do not understand why this was necessary. From the start, I was horrified to think that Silver (who was at least 30 at end of TI) had a kid the same age as Jim's kid (who was in my recollection more like 12 at the end of TI). At some point Motion tries to reconcile this by commenting that Jim Sr. was 18 at the end of TI (not sure I buy that one, but okay) and that Nat's mom is in her 60s. This still means that in the late 1700s, Silver was fathering a child at 50 (or older), his wife was pregnant older than 40 (again let me remind folks that THIS IS IN THE LATE 1700s) AND that the fearsome pirates that our young protagonists find on the island are also in their 70s. Huh? Really? I was trying to figure out the whole first 1/3 of the book why Motion felt he needed such a time lapse (couldn't it have been 25 years...both Jim and Silver had kids within 7 years of end of TI...much MORE PLAUSIBLE) and then we landed on the Island and there was a virtual city. Oh, yes, this makes sense he needed 40 years for a second generation to arise on TI and create awful nemesis and built a village. Uh, no. The pirates (leaders, those snarky 70 year olds) were actually ALONE on the island for 35 years. It is not 2nd generation slaves or masters that we see, it is the originals and their newly (only 5 years) acquired slaves. What? Again, why the 40 years?? As one can see, this part really, really bugged me.
The only thing that makes even a bit of sense is that the 40 year lag went to explain the aversion to slavery felt by the people on the Nightingale (early 1800s vs. late 1700s), but I still thought that was anachronistic. I'm not sure any newly arrived boat load of folks (even decent upstanding ones) would be so horrified to find that a boatload of slaves crashed on the island and the slaves were still treated as slaves. I'm not defending the institution of slavery here, mind you, but come on...these were people who had been removed from one slave situation on their way to be sold to another slave master. Why, exactly are the crew of Nightingale so offended that they are treated like, um..SLAVES?
Some other tiny things that bugged me:
1. Silver is living in his old place of residence, with his old wife and yet is never apprehended by police (I thought the whole point at the end of TI of him jumping ship is that he was to avoid going back to England and having to face trial). Not only this, but he and his story are so well known that all the sailors on Nightingale give Nat due respect. If everyone knows who he is and where he lives why exactly is he not in jail? Or hung on the gallows?
2. Why does Israel Hand's nephew even have to come into play? And again, why is he not an old man?
3. It was obvious that the silver was on the white rock as soon as Nat began walking there in the middle of the night.
4. Why would marooned pirates who already have a perfectly comfortable life on the island (complete with slaves and booze) care about the silver? Clearly, if they are going to leave they would need some cash, but on the island their treasure is virtually useless.
Overall it was a fast-paced action book. Mildly entertaining with plot twists and "surprises" that are visible from 4 knots. Not really recommended for an adult reader, might be okay for a kid who really liked TI and would not be very critical.
July 20, 2019
A Disappointing, Unnecessary Sequel to a Classic
When I saw the cover and premise, I was very excited to read this novel. Having loved Treasure Island as a boy, the idea of going on a similar swashbuckling adventure and revisiting some of the beloved characters seemed full of promise. Given some of my recent experiences with reading sequels written by fans, perhaps I should not have set my expectations quite so high.
That is not to say there are not some positive elements to the story. As a former Poet Laureate, one would hope Andrew Motion has a favourable command of the English language - and he does. His style and tone imitate Stevenson's writing without parroting, which is to his credit. Furthermore, he clearly knows the original reasonably well (though not perfectly) and has a firm grasp of the historical period in which the previous novel and his own are set. Additionally, I thought the addition of a female character, while slightly implausible, had the potential to further some interesting plot choices.
Unfortunately, most other aspects of the novel fail to deliver on this promise. From a character point of view, most of the individuals in the story are flat, offering little to enable the reader to connect to them and their concerns. Young Jim Hawkins lacks ambiguity, unlike his namesake in the original tale. Natty, while a more engaging character, makes implausible decisions that seem to serve to tie up simple resolutions to plot concerns. Captain Beamish, the stalwart captain of the good ship Nightingale, is a nice guy with limited personality. Scotland offers a little more verve but we do not see enough of him to connect in a meaningful way. Even the prospect of reacquainting ourselves with the three pirates marooned on Treasure Island - young Dick, Tom Morgan and the other unnamed pirate from Stevenson's novel - is a non-event. They have inexplicably had their names changed and are nothing more than cardboard cut-outs. Indeed, the black and white (or good and evil) nature of the characters and their motivations, with no shade, is decidedly off-putting. By presenting the characters in this way, the novel becomes a discourse in moralisation.
There are several issues with the plot as well. The most striking of these is the series of random events that do nothing whatsoever to advance the storyline. Between the inexplicable and pointless death of a potentially interesting character (as well as why that character was permitted to be a member of the crew in the first place), the incident with the sea lions and the convenient capturing of Natty and a former slave, one finds oneself clinging to bits of driftwood that are the shattered remains of a once-promising story.
Further unnecessary embellishments mar the setting, which seems particularly jarring as the setting has already been quite clearly detailed in the original. The island now holds "doo-dahs" - presumably a reference to the now-extinct dodo - as well as creatures which have no clear place in history or zoology at all, for no apparent reason.
Perhaps Mr Motion will salvage the wreckage of the series in his sequel. I have my doubts. In short, there was a great deal of swash in the premise of the novel, but it lacked the buckle to tie it all together.
When I saw the cover and premise, I was very excited to read this novel. Having loved Treasure Island as a boy, the idea of going on a similar swashbuckling adventure and revisiting some of the beloved characters seemed full of promise. Given some of my recent experiences with reading sequels written by fans, perhaps I should not have set my expectations quite so high.
That is not to say there are not some positive elements to the story. As a former Poet Laureate, one would hope Andrew Motion has a favourable command of the English language - and he does. His style and tone imitate Stevenson's writing without parroting, which is to his credit. Furthermore, he clearly knows the original reasonably well (though not perfectly) and has a firm grasp of the historical period in which the previous novel and his own are set. Additionally, I thought the addition of a female character, while slightly implausible, had the potential to further some interesting plot choices.
Unfortunately, most other aspects of the novel fail to deliver on this promise. From a character point of view, most of the individuals in the story are flat, offering little to enable the reader to connect to them and their concerns. Young Jim Hawkins lacks ambiguity, unlike his namesake in the original tale. Natty, while a more engaging character, makes implausible decisions that seem to serve to tie up simple resolutions to plot concerns. Captain Beamish, the stalwart captain of the good ship Nightingale, is a nice guy with limited personality. Scotland offers a little more verve but we do not see enough of him to connect in a meaningful way. Even the prospect of reacquainting ourselves with the three pirates marooned on Treasure Island - young Dick, Tom Morgan and the other unnamed pirate from Stevenson's novel - is a non-event. They have inexplicably had their names changed and are nothing more than cardboard cut-outs. Indeed, the black and white (or good and evil) nature of the characters and their motivations, with no shade, is decidedly off-putting. By presenting the characters in this way, the novel becomes a discourse in moralisation.
There are several issues with the plot as well. The most striking of these is the series of random events that do nothing whatsoever to advance the storyline. Between the inexplicable and pointless death of a potentially interesting character (as well as why that character was permitted to be a member of the crew in the first place), the incident with the sea lions and the convenient capturing of Natty and a former slave, one finds oneself clinging to bits of driftwood that are the shattered remains of a once-promising story.
Further unnecessary embellishments mar the setting, which seems particularly jarring as the setting has already been quite clearly detailed in the original. The island now holds "doo-dahs" - presumably a reference to the now-extinct dodo - as well as creatures which have no clear place in history or zoology at all, for no apparent reason.
Perhaps Mr Motion will salvage the wreckage of the series in his sequel. I have my doubts. In short, there was a great deal of swash in the premise of the novel, but it lacked the buckle to tie it all together.
October 25, 2012
A sequel to Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island? Really? When I saw this on the shelf at my local library, I thought it takes a pretty competent and gutsy writer to try that. Well, why not? I picked it up, took it home, and read it over the course of the last few evenings. This is what I thought about it.
I won’t try to compare this novel to Treasure Island. It’s been years since I’ve read Stevenson’s classic adventure tale of pirates and buried treasure. This is perhaps just as well since this novel stands on its own, albeit with settings and minor characters from Treasure Island. It takes place about forty years after that book ends. Jim Hawkins, the son of the original Jim Hawkins, is the first person narrator. Natty, the daughter of Long John Silver, is his companion and the instigator of their adventure together. Their goal is to return to Treasure Island and recover the remaining treasure -- a large number of silver bars.
I loved the prose from the beginning. It definitely has a quality and style you see too seldom in recent writing. It did not try to ‘grab’ be at the beginning. It did not try to shock me or entice me with ‘action.’ (I normally hate openings like that.) It invited me in, the narrator almost seeming like a bashful host for the story he was to tell. In my opinion, the prose style alone makes this book worth reading.
In other ways, though, I found the novel less satisfying. The plot tends to drag in places, with no mysteries or answers being discovered, just bits of well-executed prose marking the passage of time and reflecting. I also did not find the characters overly interesting. Jim, as the average young man grown bored by his father’s retellings of his adventures, just did not ring true to me. He seems too subservient and has too little longing for his own adventures to be interesting until Natty shows up. After that, he mainly follows her lead. Although it would be historically unlikely, I think this story may have been better told from Natty’s point of view rather than from Jim’s. She is the far stronger and more interesting of the two main characters. I would not object to this lack of fidelity to historic sensibilities because this is not a story told by a Victorian writer for a Victorian reader. It is a modern story for a modern audience.
Overall, I enjoyed this book. I recommend it to fans of the original Treasure Island and to anyone looking for a well-written new novel that is out of the ordinary.
I won’t try to compare this novel to Treasure Island. It’s been years since I’ve read Stevenson’s classic adventure tale of pirates and buried treasure. This is perhaps just as well since this novel stands on its own, albeit with settings and minor characters from Treasure Island. It takes place about forty years after that book ends. Jim Hawkins, the son of the original Jim Hawkins, is the first person narrator. Natty, the daughter of Long John Silver, is his companion and the instigator of their adventure together. Their goal is to return to Treasure Island and recover the remaining treasure -- a large number of silver bars.
I loved the prose from the beginning. It definitely has a quality and style you see too seldom in recent writing. It did not try to ‘grab’ be at the beginning. It did not try to shock me or entice me with ‘action.’ (I normally hate openings like that.) It invited me in, the narrator almost seeming like a bashful host for the story he was to tell. In my opinion, the prose style alone makes this book worth reading.
In other ways, though, I found the novel less satisfying. The plot tends to drag in places, with no mysteries or answers being discovered, just bits of well-executed prose marking the passage of time and reflecting. I also did not find the characters overly interesting. Jim, as the average young man grown bored by his father’s retellings of his adventures, just did not ring true to me. He seems too subservient and has too little longing for his own adventures to be interesting until Natty shows up. After that, he mainly follows her lead. Although it would be historically unlikely, I think this story may have been better told from Natty’s point of view rather than from Jim’s. She is the far stronger and more interesting of the two main characters. I would not object to this lack of fidelity to historic sensibilities because this is not a story told by a Victorian writer for a Victorian reader. It is a modern story for a modern audience.
Overall, I enjoyed this book. I recommend it to fans of the original Treasure Island and to anyone looking for a well-written new novel that is out of the ordinary.
June 2, 2012
I wasn't really sure what to expect from this book, but was excited to read it all the same. The story begins in 1802, 40 years after the events depicted in Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island, and concerns a return to the island to attempt to locate the treasure that had been left behind. The main characters are the young offspring of Jim Hawkins and Long John Silver, Jim Hawkins (jr) and Natty Silver. There are many references along the way to characters and events from the original story and there are a few surprises encountered on the way.
This book could not really be described as fast-paced, but it never seems to drag along either. The author has a great way of drawing you into the story with the very descriptive way that things and people are portrayed. It takes over a third of the book to even get near the island, but that's good, because getting there is all part of the fun.
I didn't find this book to be too predictable. There were many clues to be had as the story progressed, but things didn't always turn out the way I thought they would. Even the ending, satisfying as it was, was not exactly as I pictured it.
If you are a fan of Treasure Island, which I am, then you should find this book to be a satisfactory and fitting sequel, as well as tribute, to the original story. I should also add that you wouldn't have to be too familiar with the original book to enjoy this one, although it might help to understand some of the things going on. Besides are there many people out there who aren't familiar with Robert Louis Stevenson's classic?
I'm not that familiar with the author, Andrew Motion, other than he presided as Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom from 1999 to 2009. He has a number of books published, many of which are poetry. I may check out some of these as well.
If you enjoyed Treasure Island then check out Silver. If not, check it out anyway - you may be pleasantly surprised.
This book could not really be described as fast-paced, but it never seems to drag along either. The author has a great way of drawing you into the story with the very descriptive way that things and people are portrayed. It takes over a third of the book to even get near the island, but that's good, because getting there is all part of the fun.
I didn't find this book to be too predictable. There were many clues to be had as the story progressed, but things didn't always turn out the way I thought they would. Even the ending, satisfying as it was, was not exactly as I pictured it.
If you are a fan of Treasure Island, which I am, then you should find this book to be a satisfactory and fitting sequel, as well as tribute, to the original story. I should also add that you wouldn't have to be too familiar with the original book to enjoy this one, although it might help to understand some of the things going on. Besides are there many people out there who aren't familiar with Robert Louis Stevenson's classic?
I'm not that familiar with the author, Andrew Motion, other than he presided as Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom from 1999 to 2009. He has a number of books published, many of which are poetry. I may check out some of these as well.
If you enjoyed Treasure Island then check out Silver. If not, check it out anyway - you may be pleasantly surprised.
November 22, 2012
Fun light read, captures tone of Stevenson's Treasure Island. Having one of the main characters be female, even though disguised, doesn't seem like something Stevenson would do, but it does allow for the love interest and appeals to today's readership. It's certainly something I would have dearly liked to read back in Gr. 7--all those swashbuckling adventures never had female main characters, and the historical fiction I liked always had titles like "He [never She] Went With Marco Polo (or Vasco da Gama, or Richard the Lionheart, etc.)"
However, young Jim's agonizing over his feelings for Natty, and imagining hers for him, seems a little too 21st century. Although I think it's good for boys to read that stuff.
The story starts out with lots of intrigue & suspense, but I found by half-way through I was losing interest. The attack on the stockade & confrontation with the pirates seemed to take way too long, and the scariness of the pirates, which the author did a great job in building up, seems to kind of fizzle out.
Still a worthwhile read!
However, young Jim's agonizing over his feelings for Natty, and imagining hers for him, seems a little too 21st century. Although I think it's good for boys to read that stuff.
The story starts out with lots of intrigue & suspense, but I found by half-way through I was losing interest. The attack on the stockade & confrontation with the pirates seemed to take way too long, and the scariness of the pirates, which the author did a great job in building up, seems to kind of fizzle out.
Still a worthwhile read!
June 11, 2015
Motion has done a great job in writing this sequel because of all the parallels this story has to Treasure Island (both in events and organization). His descriptions are clearly well thought out because they are in the style of Robert Louis Stevenson. Motion was able to write in a way that did not betray him as a 21st century writer. At the same time, the story is still very readable even to those that do not normally read classics as old as Treasure Island.
My criticism of this story is that Jim was a rather stagnant character. His internal thoughts were typical and did not develop much throughout the novel. The other characters, such as Scotland and the captain, were more interesting.
My one other complaint is that the ending of the story was dissatisfying. Perhaps this is because I had little interest in Jim and his fate, but I still feel like the story ended without a real conclusion.
My criticism of this story is that Jim was a rather stagnant character. His internal thoughts were typical and did not develop much throughout the novel. The other characters, such as Scotland and the captain, were more interesting.
My one other complaint is that the ending of the story was dissatisfying. Perhaps this is because I had little interest in Jim and his fate, but I still feel like the story ended without a real conclusion.
August 26, 2016
Except it wasn't ok. This is pretty tedious. I never like being told what to make of a character's actions. For a hundred and fifty pages Jim Hawkins (junior) tells us things like 'she looked at the ground so I thought she must be sad' and 'I am older now but that was how I saw it'. Probably the original Treasure Island is written in the same way - but my memory is that the original allows the reader to see past the narrator's youthful narrative and see the other characters through that prism. The remainder 250 pages continue much the same but with more predictable action, more stereotypes, and less mystery. I had to skip through to the end so I count it as abandoned. And even so the final page was a letdown. [downgraded to one star after reading some other reviews :)]
November 11, 2016
The 3rd star is for David Tennant's brilliant narration. The book itself is slow (how can a pirate adventure move SO slowly?), preachy (yes, modern people know slavery is horrible, but would the white characters in this book?), and badly researched as a sequel to Treasure Island. Motion states that Billy Bones was at the Admiral Benbow for a week before Black Dog found him, when it's clearly much longer (several months). He also describes Long John Silver as having a peg leg, but Silver actually used a crutch. I apologized to my kids for making them listen to this drivel.
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